


is this adult enough for you?

by cherrypi3



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Coming of Age, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Hyuck Is Smart And Sexy Too But With Less Common Sense, M/M, Mark Is Smart And Sexy, NYC Setting, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romantic Comedy, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:35:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28951272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrypi3/pseuds/cherrypi3
Summary: In an attempt to get his fuck buddy's attention, Casual Dating Newbie Lee Donghyuck heads to Tinder to find a guy to make him jealous.Instead he ends up learning a little about relationships, a little about Physics, and maybe a little too much about a boy named Mark.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 49
Kudos: 536





	1. Wow This Dude Is Really Hot

“Do you think if I pretended to go out with this guy I found on Tinder, Yukhei will realize he likes me?”

Renjun’s been writing his paper non stop for a solid two hours now but he devotes sixty seconds of his time to stare at Donghyuck. 

He’s got that sharp glint in his eyes— Donghyuck calls it the tested and patented All Knowing Renjun Look™— when he can see exactly what’s about to happen and has the power to stop it but refuses to tell Donghyuck about it until all his bad decisions snowball and collectively blow up in his face. 

Donghyuck wouldn’t have believed Renjun was that smart had it not happened twice already— right before Donghyuck was convinced by an ex friend to start an online weed dropshipping business and almost got busted by the NYPD after two days, and when he tried marketing the condom he knitted as a gag gift for Renjun and Jaemin’s anniversary, barely missing getting sued a class action for “misleading his customers”.

He had that look when Donghyuck first convinced him to move to New York too, after they’ve both been accepted into the top universities in South Korea. Sure, nothing too bad’s happened with their current plan yet but it’s how Donghyuck knows Renjun thinks something will that bugs him. 

Donghyuck fucking hates that look.

“Maybe I can pretend to be someone else and talk to him too,” Donghyuck adds thoughtfully, pointedly scrolling through Yukhei’s instagram following list. “I could just use your phone. That’s gonna work, right?”

Renjun sighs and goes back to typing on his laptop. All he offers him is an exhausted, “Good luck, Hyuck.”

The thing is Donghyuck’s never really been in a friends with benefits situation before— he’s never been in any kind of casual set up whatsoever— so when him and Yukhei got drunk and had a one night stand together, and then proceeded to have even more one night stands together, it’s not like he has a blueprint of how these things are supposed to work.

He thought it would be easy. Yukhei comes in on Fridays when he’s pissed off from soccer practice and Donghyuck booty texts him before or after he gets wasted. No feelings, no complications. Just _heyyy u up?_ texts at 2:30 in the morning.

And then Renjun stole his phone one night and drunk downloaded Tinder.

_“Isn’t this your boytoy?”_

Things have been confusing for Donghyuck since then.

“I’m swiping right on this dude now,” he says, staring at the profile again.

“Don’t tell me. I don’t want to be an accomplice.”

So maybe sabotaging Yukhei’s future relationships isn’t the optimal way to go, but Donghyuck isn’t to blame for that. Yukhei is. Pretty, charming boys like Yukhei who can have the whole university begging at their feet whenever they feel like it shouldn’t go hooking up with soft, kind hearted, easy to win over people like Donghyuck.

Case in point: this is Donghyuck’s first casual relationship. And Donghyuck’s a mildly touch starved Computer Engineering Major who likes reading tragic, star crossed love stories. What did he expect was going to happen?

“I’m really gonna do this.”

“Do whatever you want, Hyuck.”

And maybe he can think of better ways to handle how he feels about Yukhei hooking up with other people without deceit and passive aggressive communication, but it’s not like Yukhei’s a roadmap of good behavior either. Yukhei is a fratboy. They first had sex in his dirty, stinky house bathroom while a passed out dude snored all throughout in the bathtub. And Yukhei was fully aware of that. They fucked anyway. He can hardly judge Donghyuck for this.

“I’m gonna do it.”

Renjun doesn’t respond anymore.

Donghyuck takes a moment to have a stare down with the profile on his screen again.

_Mark. 21._

_friends forced me to make this acc. part time actor._

He only has one picture and it’s with two other people, with no indicator of which one of them he is. All objectively attractive, and all sporting that slightly unhinged look that shows they might consider going along with his plan. The lowercase bio is a good sign too, and the fact that he’s honest about this being against his will is a subtle plus.

Donghyuck thinks fuck it and swipes right.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Evenings in New York are always interesting. It doesn’t matter what day it is, or what season, there’s always going to be someone getting mugged somewhere, and there’s always going to be a passerby who does nothing about it. That’s just the way it is.

Compared to the quieter hustle and bustle of Seoul, New York is a little scary. Donghyuck and Renjun’s first day moving in is proof of that. Not only did they get ripped off by the taxi driver, telling them in America, both of them have to pay the same amount written on the meter, their luggage had been stolen too, only leaving them with the wallets in their pockets and the phones they used to ask for more money from home.

But none of that deterred Donghyuck.

Renjun’s always been the rational one between the two of them— the planner. That’s why he makes most of their big decisions and why Donghyuck holds his opinion to a standard, because Renjun rarely ever says anything unless he’s absolutely sure.

Donghyuck is the dreamer, the doe-eyed naive one who leads the way. Together they balance each other out, with Donghyuck pushing Renjun for new, risky opportunities and Renjun reeling him back in when it gets too much.

This situation certainly feels like something Renjun would try to save him from.

“So how did the date— _oh my god.”_

“Renjun—”

Fucking Mark’s pink to his ears with amusement when he pulls away from his neck, giving Donghyuck another heated kiss on the lips before looking back over his shoulder to offer Renjun a small wave.

“Hey.”

His hand slips back into the blankets to give Donghyuck’s waist a firm, just can’t help it squeeze, and Donghyuck really doesn’t want to whimper in front of Renjun but Mark’s fingertips are slipping under his waistband now, sliding against skin that really shouldn’t be getting touched when his best friend’s right there— wrapping around him, drawing noises out of him—

“ _Ah_ —”

“The date’s going pretty well,” Mark murmurs. “What do _you_ think?”

Renjun stares at him, and then at Donghyuck, and Donghyuck may be a little too hot under the collar to be sure but Renjun definitely looks like he’s not enjoying being here at all. 

That’s not good. That means Renjun doesn’t like what he’s doing. That means Mark is most probably bad news.

“Hyuck, can I have a word with you in my room?”

Mark’s laugh is quiet and kind of evil against Donghyuck’s shoulder.

“Um—”

“Now, please?”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“What happened to paying him to act as your fake other boyfriend?!” Renjun screeches right after he slams the door close. “And can you please not let him give you these?” He gestures vaguely at his upper body. “You’re not in high school anymore, Hyuck. Have some more decorum.”

Donghyuck hugs the blanket around him even tighter.

“But it’s for equal exchange,” he says weakly, when Renjun yanks on the sheet just to expose his hickeys again, “he said I can only give him one if he gives me one back. Equal exchange.”

“Oh my god.”

To be fair, he can see why Renjun’s so surprised. The original plan was to convince this Mark fellow to play a part for him, but that was before he found out Mark was the hot black haired guy in the middle of the picture, with pretty smooth skin Donghyuck had no choice but to run his nails across. And he also has that whole hot but kind of dorky appeal going for him, and Donghyuck’s finding out he might be really into that.

“You remember the reason why you’re doing this is because you can’t handle a casual relationship with Yukhei, right?” Renjun pinches the bridge of his nose. “You freaked out when you saw him on Tinder and now you’re hooking up with someone from the same app. You don’t see the irony in that?”

Donghyuck does see the irony in that, actually. But that doesn’t stop him from tilting his head back and rolling his eyes.

“I did ask him to do it,” he replies, pulling his blanket up again. “But we’re gonna talk about it more tomorrow. You know. After we have sex.”

Renjun gives him another look— a squinty eyed one Donghyuck likes to call The Renjun Check Up™. Donghyuck purses his lips and squints back at him.

“Where does he go?”

“Same university.”

“Senior?”

“Third year.”

“Fratboy?”

“Doesn’t act like it.”

“Major?”

“Physics.”

Donghyuck has to actively stop his grin when Renjun’s face contorts into one of surprise. He glances at the closed door and leans in like Mark can hear them somehow. 

“Physics?” he hisses. “You found a fucking physicist on _Tinder_?”

Donghyuck offers him an excited nod.

“He showed me his ID and everything. I fucking know right?”

There’s a long second where they hear nothing but silence, with Renjun crossing his arms and looking at him like he’s trying to find something else to complain about. But then he opens his mouth just to close it, does so a couple more times before giving up, and he finally reaches back for the doorknob.

“You will not be having sex on my bed ever. Got it?”

Donghyuck stops himself from giddily jumping on his feet.

“Got it.”

“Are you sure about this?” Renjun sighs, and his tone is different now, genuine, not one of his judgemental ones that makes Donghyuck want to go against him just to piss him off. “You found the guy on Tinder, Hyuck. And you know you’re—”

_Gullible_ , is what Renjun wants to say, but doesn’t. The same way he didn’t blame Donghyuck for getting tricked into losing their luggage the day they moved in. He holds his gaze and waits for Donghyuck to fill in the blanks.

“Not really,” Donghyuck replies, honest. 

“But you can handle it, right?” Renjun asks. “Like I won’t need to look after you every time you’re with this— fine— admittedly kinda impressive Tinder date? You can—”

“Of course!” Donghyuck squeaks out. He gets this persistent feeling in his chest that he’s doing something wrong though, an accompanying emotion whenever Renjun gives him his reluctant approval. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Donghyuck really should have thought things through. Like really.

“Yukhei?” Mark asks while he squeezes into his jeans. “Wong Yukhei? Like the soccer player? The one from NYU?”

Or at least he should’ve taken into consideration that despite New York being called The Big Apple, the west side of Manhattan actually isn’t that big of a place, and that Mark and Yukhei could very well be friends with each other. 

“Yeah,” he says, hesitant, shifting on the bed and propping himself up so he’d be resting half of his upper body weight on his elbows. He watches Mark pick up his shirt with his toes before he slips it over his arms. “Why? You know him?”

“Know him.” Mark’s laugh is unamused and dry. “The dude was my roommate’s ex. He’s the reason why I know every single lyric to Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill album.”

That’s a little unfortunate. Donghyuck personally prefers to listen to fun songs when he’s going through a break up.

“But will you still help me?” he asks slowly, cowering into his blankets a little when Mark turns to look at him. “I know it’s kinda weird, but I’ll pay you for like, acting and stuff. And it’s only gonna be for a month, two months tops.”

“Just to be clear, you’re asking me to act like I’m dating you, right?” Mark quirks a brow at him. “Like in public? Where Yukhei and other people can see us?”

“Yeah.”

Mark looks around the floor of the bedroom and sits down on the edge of the bed once he’s got them. Donghyuck blinks when he notices he’s putting on white Ice Bear print socks.

“So do we actually have to go on dates? Or do we just meet up whenever he’s around?”

“I—” Donghyuck purses his lips. He hasn’t thought of that. Truth be told he didn’t think he’d get this far. “I haven’t worked out everything yet. I’ll just— fill you in with the details later.”

“Alright,” Mark says, before Donghyuck can mull it over. “Whatever. I’m free on weekends and Thursdays as long as you give me a heads up.”

Donghyuck sits up from his bed.

“Wait, really?”

“Sure,” Mark grumbles, standing up and walking to his shoes before slipping them on. “I have this paper I’m stressing out on anyway and I need a distraction. You don’t have to give me any money, just pay for all our dates.” He looks at Donghyuck again, and then on his bed, before walking back over to feel for something on the mattress. “Move. I think you’re sitting on my phone.”

“You know this isn’t—” Donghyuck flinches when he complies and Mark’s hand still grazes against his leg. “Like you know this doesn’t include sex, right? Just going out and maybe a few pics for my instagram. There won’t be a repeat of what happened tonight.”

The corners of Mark’s mouth twitch, and then he’s fishing his phone out from under the sheets, tucking it into his front pocket after giving the screen a check. When he faces Donghyuck again, his expression’s unreadable, but it feels exactly like Renjun’s All Knowing Look, and Donghyuck doesn’t know what to make of that.

“Don’t worry,” he says, voice slow and thick like he’s enjoying the words in his mouth.

Donghyuck fights a shudder.

“I won’t do anything unless you ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has been in my drafts since FOREVER but finishing a chaptered fic is one of my resolutions this year soooo i thought why not ;;;;;; also i've never written hottie mark before so YEAH
> 
> i hope u enjoy! kudos n comments are greatly appreciated ;;;;;;


	2. How Did I Get Myself Into This

It was approximately five minutes after Mark had left that Donghyuck realized the few unanswered but necessary details to his otherwise decent plan: a. he doesn’t really know how to fake just dating; b. he can’t make up his mind on what he’ll say if Yukhei asks how long they’ve been doing it; and c. the most important one— Mark has no prior knowledge about him.

And he’s not saying Mark has to jampack every single important thing that’s ever happened in his life into two months either, not really, but he should at least know something. 

Donghyuck isn’t even sure Mark knows what his major is. He was too busy trying to get in his pants when he was telling him about it.

“Excuse me, excuse me— fucking move, what the fuck—”

“What is _that?_ ”

Right in the corner of 122nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue sits a pretty, Italian cafe with the most comfortable vintage couches Donghyuck’s had the pleasure of using. It’s like drinking and eating in a big, old world antique room— lots of vibrant colors, lots of decade old pieces, with a perfect college student welcoming ambiance that makes people like Donghyuck feel right at home. 

Donghyuck loves it, always have. Renjun and all his other friends however do not. Which is why it’s interesting that Mark chose this of all cafes to meet up in.

“What do you mean?” Donghyuck asks in an innocent tone, dropping the binder and smiling when Mark’s crostini plate shakes when it slams against his side of the table. “This—” He sweeps his hand over it with a flourish. “—is everything you need to know about me.”

Twenty years of life crammed into twelve hours of hard work. The binder contains all the birthdays, all the heartaches, all the dreams and hopes and nightmares one would need to know to figure out who Lee Donghyuck really is. Donghyuck feels pretty proud of it as a second year in college. He’d managed to amass enough experiences to rival the length of E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View.

“This would be great if you wanna knock someone out on the subway,” Mark says, flipping through the pages with thinly veiled horror. “Please tell me you made this the whole night and haven’t been saving it like some tacky life journal.”

“I did make this the whole night,” Donghyuck says through a yawn. He plops on the free space beside Mark and leans against the backrest. “Two hundred and fifty two pages in total! Better start reading!”

Something Donghyuck notices about Mark early on: Mark appears to be an accommodating person. He hasn’t protested to anything Donghyuck’s suggested until now, and there’s an overall compliant quality to him that makes this whole thing a lot more comfortable. He somehow manages to toe the very thin line between being agreeable and being a pushover.

Donghyuck falls asleep thinking about it.

When he wakes up the cafe’s filled to the brim, his head is on Mark’s shoulder and Mark’s gone through half his pseudo autobiography. Mark wriggles his arm a little when he notices he’s woken up before reaching his free hand out to give him a coffee cup.

“This is cold,” Donghyuck mumbles. “Which part are you on?”

“Spring break.”

“Oh.” He sits up straight, stretching his arms out in front of him. “Yeah, well, you can probably skip that. I don’t even know why I wrote that down. We didn’t really do anything.”

“You said you tried writing a book,” Mark says distractedly, running his thumb over a page. “Before you blacked out. And you made out with your best friend’s boyfriend.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widen.

“On a dare made by said best friend!” he hisses quickly. “Skip! Skip that part! I shouldn’t have written it down!”

“How about this then?” Mark clears his throat. _“_ _On the last night of spring break, Renjun came into my bed, dressed in nothing but the pajamas I gave him for his birthday, and one thing led to—”_

“Stop!”

Donghyuck barely manages not to spill his coffee when he puts it back on the table from how fast he tries to snatch the binder from Mark’s hold. Thirty quick seconds of struggling and Donghyuck finds himself almost on top of Mark, whole body angling towards him while his arm reaches for the hand Mark’s raised to hold the binder away.

Another thing Donghyuck’s noticing: Mark’s a bit of an asshole. With a mole on his face that’s similar to where one of Donghyuck’s is and a cocky, secretive smile that’s starting to get into Donghyuck’s nerves.

“What are you doing?” Mark whispers, left arm still up. He’s so close Donghyuck can count the lashes on his eyelids. He leans in even more until there’s barely any space between them. “You wanna break your promise already? Haven’t even taken me out to dinner yet.”

Donghyuck reverts back against the couch and takes the coffee cup again. He wills away the heat creeping onto his neck.

“Should’ve put this dickish behavior in your Tinder bio so I would’ve known beforehand,” he mutters into his drink.

“But then you wouldn’t have swiped right.”

Mark smiles when Donghyuck shoots him a glare. He rests the binder on his lap before taking his phone from the table and handing it to him.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Give your number a call so I can save it.”

“You’re so like, weirdly okay with my plan,” Donghyuck says, leftover daze from sleep gone. “I’m starting to feel like maybe you’re getting something out of this, too.”

Mark wordlessly takes the device again once he’s finished, earning a rightful scoff from Donghyuck to when he sees him set his contact name as That Weird Tinder Guy.

“You are getting something out of it, aren't you?” Donghyuck asks him. “What is it?”

“Great sex.”

Donghyuck frowns.

“I already told you—”

“I know what you said.” Mark leans back against the backrest too, just a little more elegantly than how Donghyuck does it, before propping the binder up. “But people say a lot of things. What they actually do sometimes is very different.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“He’s so arrogant!”

Renjun sighs, giving him a quick glance before resuming typing on his laptop.

“He really thinks I’ll sleep with him, Renjun, like I’m that easy.” Donghyuck rolls himself over on Renjun’s bed until he’s on his stomach, scrolling through his screen again to reread Mark’s obnoxious text messages. “Look at this. Baby. He flirts like he’s the king of the world. He may not be a fratboy but he sure has the same dick streak.”

“You already have slept with him, Hyuck, so I don’t know what you expect me to say.”

“That was once!” Donghyuck whines. “Never again!”

It’s been four days of them getting to know each other to prepare for their fake first date. In the span of 96 hours Mark has managed to draw out every single tic Donghyuck has, everything that gets him riled up, and at the same time offer Donghyuck no information about himself except that he’s in the same university, in the Physics program, and he’s a year older. 

Donghyuck isn’t one to believe in conspiracy theories but the more he talks to Mark, the more he thinks Mark’s some sort of cryptid. He never sees him anywhere. Yes, Columbia’s a sizable campus and he rarely meets Renjun by accident too but Donghyuck purposefully rerouted his walk to his classes so he can pass through Pupin Hall. There’s no way it’s still this impossible to run into him.

“What are you grumbling about now?”

“What if Mark’s not from Columbia?”

“Just when I think you got better, you only get worse.”

“I’m just saying!” Donghyuck sits up, criss crossing his legs before tucking his feet on either thigh. His phone lights up from a new text from Mark and he gives it a two second suspicious stare before he looks at Renjun again. “He showed me his fake ID but what if it’s a fake ID? What if he’s lying?”

“Why does it matter?” Renjun says while he types. “You got him from Tinder to act as your fake boyfriend. Makes sense that everything else about him is made up.”

“Yeah, but like.” Donghyuck checks his phone again. “I had sex with him.”

“And?”

“And if he lied then he also duped me into having sex with him. Because the main reason why I did that is because I thought he’s both hot and smart. Now I’m thinking what if he’s just a liar.”

Renjun finally tears his eyes away from his macbook. Donghyuck puts his phone on the bed, screen down.

“I have a paper to finish. I don’t have time for your misplaced deductive reasoning.”

“Tell me what to do.”

“Okay,” Renjun says tiredly, hand waving aimlessly into thin air. “Why don’t you, I don’t know, ask him to meet somewhere on campus? Or go to a party in one of the dorms? Like EC? Outsiders can’t just sneak into Columbia housing.”

Donghyuck clicks his tongue.

“And I do miss getting drunk with fun seniors.”

“That’s settled then.” Renjun focuses on his laptop again. “I’ll tell Jaemin to sniff out a party for you.”

Donghyuck gets up when he starts typing. It’s just before he reaches the door that Renjun says a follow up wait and he swivels on his heels.

“What?”

“Please don’t have sex in someone’s suite,” Renjun tells him. “You know you’ll regret it.”

Donghyuck gawks at him. Renjun keeps his gaze locked on him, face still blank even when Donghyuck refuses to look away. Donghyuck frowns while he grumpily opens the door.

“You have zero faith in me,” he says before shutting it close. “ _Zero_.”

“I have my reasons,” Renjun yells, voice lowered by the wall between their adjacent bedrooms. “Don’t have sex in the suites, Hyuck. You know they can hear you!”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


The first time Donghyuck stepped into the East Campus highrise was second week into his freshman year, lured in by the promise of blaring senior parties coupled with drunk bad decisions that lead to great memories. 

The last time was two weeks ago, when he had to be hauled out by Renjun because he was too drunk to stand up straight. EC, the flagship senior residence of the Columbia party scene. By far Donghyuck’s favorite Columbia housing.

“Yeah, no.”

“What?” Donghyuck’s being left behind on the sidewalk before he can form a proper reply. He speedwalks until he’s beside Mark before stepping in front of him. “What do you mean no? It’s EC. You can’t not wanna go to a party in EC.”

“I mean we’re not going there, we’re going some place else,” Mark says, grabbing him by the shoulders and pushing him aside so he can stride past him. “My roommate texted me Yukhei’s frat’s throwing a party tonight. Would you rather go to EC than a party your boyfriend’s hosting?”

“Are you really from Columbia?”

Donghyuck stops walking the same time Mark laughs at him.

“I asked you a question!” Donghyuck says, running after him again. “Are you from Columbia or not? Cause you never talk about yourself, all you have is that ID that could very well be fake, and now you’re skipping out on a party that requires you to be a Columbia student.”

“First of all, why would I lie about going to fucking Columbia? It sucks. I fucking hate that place. Everyday I wish I went to CalTech instead.” Mark turns to another street and drags Donghyuck by the forearm with him. “Also I don’t owe you any explanation. You, however, need to tell me all about yourself if we’re gonna sell your whole we’ve been dating for a while now story. That’s the only reason why I even talk to you.”

“But I need your explanation,” Donghyuck says, pulling his arm away from Mark’s hold before stopping completely. “Because if Yukhei asks about you I have no idea what to say to him. And you’re his ex’s roommate so I’m sure he knows more about you than just the basics.”

“What? You want me to make a binder for you too or something?”

“Yes, actually!” he squeaks out, starting to run forward because Mark’s leaving him behind again. “I’d appreciate it if you cooperated! I really want this to work out.”

“I am cooperating.”

Mark finally slows down his pace, and Donghyuck realizes they’re in front of Aire, the snooty doorman building in the heart of Lincoln Square. The same doorman building Renjun and Donghyuck were supposed to live in until they found out they don’t allow pets. And that it costs ten grand for a two bedroom apartment, and that’s just rent.

Mark fishes out his phone before Donghyuck can say anything.

“I’m cooperating by giving you my time and asking for nothing in return except that you pay for our dates.” Mark taps on his screen for a few seconds before looking at Donghyuck again. “But I had you figured out the moment I met you and I knew you were bound to bother me so—”

“This is why you brought me to your apartment,” Donghyuck interrupts.

“Yeah,” Mark tells him, disingenuous, challenging smile and all. “My roommates are gonna be there. You have questions to ask about me? No one’s gonna be more honest to you than them.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is really fun to write ;;;;; im still getting used to posting in chapters so i hope u bear w me ;;;;;
> 
> thank you for reading!!! i hope youre enjoying so far~ please let me know what u think aaaa


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